How Do I Draw People?

Did you think this was an instructional post about drawing people? Sorry, no. I am asking myself this question.

Every time I work on character development, I get intimidated and eventually distract myself with a different project. These pages in my journal are another attempt to practice drawing faces. While drawing these, I was thinking about my characters being sculpted in the same way that I created the Snail Mail series. So the end vision is a doll or a puppet.

The first face shown in the page above, was not created using any references to the real human figure. To put it bluntly, I don’t like it. She has a Cruella Deville look but not in a good way.

This next page shown above is a little bit better. I was watching a youtube clip with Ellen Degeneres so I was using her face as a reference. I think I need to continue to use real references. What I don’t like about this drawing is that it is too realistic and not abstracted enough for my tastes.

In this final drawing, there is what I consider some improvement with style. I like my characters to be querky and a little off while still maintaining the essence of the character. Obviously, these are just loose, quick drawings in my sketchbook, and I have a long way to go, but every little bit of practice helps.

Amy DeCaussin specializes in Illustration. View her work here, amydecaussin.com.